The insanity of it all...

[swatkat]

I'm honestly surprised by the direction this entire M/N essay thing took. I mean, if you post something up on a public forum, how can you expect *everyone* to provide you with nothing but glowing praise? Considering that ship_manifesto is a place to pimp your pairing and get others hooked to it, why should others not take an issue when you say that 'fic in X. fandom is bad, bad, bad', especially when you don't read, or aren't even interesting in reading fic in that fandom? I wish the OP hadn't over-reacted or gotten so defensive about the entire matter - I thought everyone was being very civil and asking pertinet questions. It's a pity that some people can't handle disagreements. *shrug*

Meanwhile, I'm still very much in love with Buffy/Faith, and am looking around for good fics (which is *hard* to find!). Maybe I'll have to contact some shippers after all.

Comments

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I'm still boggled. She *dismissed* the entire LFN fic - and she didn't think anyone might disagree with that?

I'm trying to figure it out, because she honestly seems like a sane person and wrote a really great essay... Maybe she didn't expect so many of us LFNers to be so LJ-savvy and turn up there with feedback that was less than glowing? She probably failed to recognise that we, as active fans in the fandom, would like to pimp our beloved fandom and pairing in this comm, and therefore the sweeping generalisation 'all fic in LFN is BAD' (no one says there isn't badfic, really) would come across as quite offensive to us. And she definitely didn't realise that such a statement, coming from an outsider, would cause more trouble than it would from a regular participant.


Swatkat

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

Hard to say.

Judging by her remarks in the comm and her own LJ, she really genuinely believes LFN is a particularly bad fandom. She seems to feel that she was simply being honest, and that the problem isn't that she was offensive, but that we can't handle honesty.

What she doesn't seem to get is that her honesty wasn't based on anything reasonable, like a review of a decent-sized sample of fic. And that therefore, since she didn't have much of a basis for her opinion, it wasn't very wise to assert it. Or to get defensive when someone disagreed with her conclusion.

[nell65.livejournal.com]

And unfortunately at this point I'm sure she would sooner chew glass than even read a rec'ed LFN HR fic, much less find anything of merit in it. Rip it to shreds more like. Which isn't even difficult to do with the classic English LIt canon if you've got a mind to...bah.

Her whole "everyone knows" that LFN fanfic is "particularly bad" is maddening because there is no possible rejoinder once she turned it into well "you're just personally upset because I said all the fic in your fandoms sucks. Not that I've read very much or even followed the links on the pages I did mange to find in my not especially exhaustive search of the interweb. And you can't make me read or like any more than I've already peeked at. And if you do like any of that garbage it is because your standards are lower than my exquistely fine ones. And if you disagree with my empty assessment it is because you can't face honesty."

Well. Um. Yeah. Once you've turned into a "stopped beating your wife yet?" proposition it is pretty unanswerable.

If she'd just said "I don't *like* LFN M/N fic very much as it is mostly sappy romance fic" - who of us would have disagreed? Instead she made it an assertion of oveall quality based on a small, random sample.

I was actually thinking of looking around for some Spuffy links. Thanks to her, I will be staying far away as at this point I'd find it garbage on principle - which is hardly fair to the authors in question.

[mommysusan.livejournal.com]

I got the clear impression that she views the fandom as tiny and made up of only squeeing fangirls for whom MR has become shorthand (and I noted with some dismay that the first link she said "someone gave her" was to the general MB for Michael's Retreat, not the fanfic pimping thread Gen started there). Not thoughtful or smart enough to read the essay or comment, apparently.

[delle.livejournal.com]

oh, god, was it? I really didn't notice.

if her only exposure to the current fandom are the squee-ers and thinly disguised RPF that's posted over there, no WONDER she thinks LFN is a vast wasteland for fic.

Outed! <g>

[mommysusan.livejournal.com]

~delle, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that MR was my first Internet home after the Warner Brothers site went pear-shaped, and I still consider it home. A crazy, dysfunctional home where the cousins who often embarass the family seem to visit regularly! I think, though, that there are intelligent folk there who stand on the side at times and watch in horror...at things like that RPF Catsma tried her best to hijack. *Is mortified*
I think Gen or Swatkat would be willing to vouch, however, that I am from the somewhat saner half of the MR family.

Re: Outed! <g>

[delle.livejournal.com]

::cring::

I are embarressed.

I'm sure there are plenty of sane, kind, interesting women at MR. And I'd never make assumptions about a particular poster based on her 'home' board.

Obviously, MR is one of my least favorite boards. But, you're happy there and that's all that matters. Hope I didn't offend too badly.

Not at all!

[mommysusan.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to be truthful. I will email you if that's ok, to not clog up the LJ :)

Sus

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I can vouch that you are one of the sanest folks in the fandom, and that there *are* some very sane and funny folks out there at MR. Too bad they have been outnumbered by the crazies.

Swatkat